Sometimes you want to sail and there is just no good place to launch. Concrete ramps with no beach, big dropoffs into the water, rough surf etc.
What's the worst place you ever successfully launched your beachcat?
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Damon Linkous
1992 Hobie 18
Memphis, TN
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Worst place you ever launched?
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Posted: Aug 06, 2008 - 02:04 PM
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Posted: Aug 06, 2008 - 03:15 PM
Cockroach Bay... Narrow channel and overhead powerline. If the tide is going out, so are you. Even trying to walk the boat fails 30 yards from the ramp due to deep, fast tide, running water. A paddle barely makes it after fanning it like mad.
Stay away !
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Posted: Aug 06, 2008 - 03:27 PM
Where is Cockroach Bay? I think the name alone would keep a lot of folks away!
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Damon Linkous
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Posted: Aug 06, 2008 - 04:47 PM
i dont really have a bad "worst place" but i used to launch on Davis Island near downtown tampa. It isnt a bad location, but it was restricted to a concrete ramp (at that time) i ALWAYS worried about my little honda getting pulled down the slippery ramp.
It did have challenges with about 2 dozen boats tied up and mored right by the ramp. I just saw on the news last night they finally have removed some of the deserted boats (that have been there for years)? If the wind wasn?t right.. it could be a bit of a challenge getting the cat to (or from) the bay to the ramp. But all in all, I guess that?s good practice.
On one occasion.... while driving home from that location my mast got snagged on a low hanging tree branch? ripped the mast off the trailer cradle and it swung around and hit a parked car (drivers side window) I couldn?t believe it didn?t smash the window? but it just scratched it. I re-secured the mast (with ropes, not bungies from that moment forward) and hightailed it home? I never took that side street again with my boat?.
NOW THIS GUY HAS A BAD TIME WITH HIS BOAT!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XG0rckUbMAQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XG0rckUbMAQ
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Posted: Aug 07, 2008 - 01:32 PM
Cockroach Bay is on the east side of Tampa Bay below Ruskin. It is a kind of ten thousand islands environment. It is a beautiful place. I used to think the name did not fit.. and it does not... but it will damn sure keep the developers out. Who would buy a condo at Cockroach Bay? -
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Posted: Aug 07, 2008 - 04:46 PM
The worst place I ever launched was a place in Utah called Deer Creak Reservoir. One of the ramps is located at the intersection of two canyons. The result is that the wind constantly gust from two different directions (roughly 60 degrees difference). It wouldn't be so bad except that the wind almost always comes from the south there, so you either have to set up with your boat pointing OUT of the wind; or you have to back out about 100 meters between a dock, the shore, and the thick crowd of ski-boats waiting to get off of the water, all the while trying to keep your sails from powering up and pushing you forward from the constantly changing wind gusts. -
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Posted: Aug 19, 2008 - 06:01 PM
Unfortunately the worst place I've ever launched is where I keep the boat in dry dock. Canyon lake Marina, Canyon lake TX. It's terrible for a cat. Concrete ramp, no beach or any useable shoreline. It's very tight to get out. I had some near misses trying to sail out. Now I just swallow my pride and get a tow out past the clutter and hoist the main. The only good place on that lake to launch is Jacobs Creek Park which is day use only - no storage. Beach wheels are a must though when the lake is low.
Would really love a little kicker motor just to get in and out...just cant bring myself to degrade my Nacra!
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Posted: Sep 30, 2008 - 06:20 PM
I hear you turtlecat. I have the same problem on Lake Lewisville, Tx. All the lauch space is inside the harbor unless you drop the mast and pay to use a park launch outside. This combine with high offshore winds makes it crazy. I have been trapped out inside the harbor. -
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Posted: Oct 01, 2008 - 11:25 AM
Lake Mohawk NJ. Kept my cat in a spider web like arrangement of cleats, lines and bumpers at a dock full of motor boats. As the wind was always in the wrong direction, I'd push off and paddle out into the middle of the lake to raise the mainsail. Fortunately I could almost always come back to the dock under sail.
Guess it was not as bad as having to drop at a ramp full of impatient motor boat owners. I've never really had to do that. -
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Posted: Nov 03, 2008 - 10:18 AM
Fortunatly for me the worst place that I launch from is where I always launch from .I drive on the wet sand to the shore & push my cat off into the water. It gets a little dicey when we have a North wind & the waves kick up. I always sail at the same place (Lake Street, The most Southern part of lake Michigan) Why would I want to go any other place. Big wind ,Big waves, sail till you get tired & turn around & go back.
Todd Green
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Posted: Nov 04, 2008 - 04:52 PM
The worst place I have ever launched is where I am forced to always launch...
I have to hoist the cat in the water via crane, have to tack in a harbor 100ft wide with powerboats coming in and out, all the while avoiding steel pilings in the water and overhanging tree branches.
Now for the fun part, I am either going dead downwind out of the harbor, this sucks jibing in a harbor, or have no wind and am forced to paddle....I wish I had a beach
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Posted: Nov 05, 2008 - 10:24 AM
Time to relocate
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Posted: Nov 07, 2008 - 01:02 PM
Yes that has to suck. I think I'd take up golfing. -
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Posted: Nov 12, 2008 - 11:25 AM
Turtlecat, we launched from Potter's Creek park west ramp a couple of years ago. It was fairly easy. It would require you to trailer your boat though. They have a floating dock next to the ramp you can use. There is a small beach between the dock and ramp you can use to launch from too. We didn't have to raise the main on the water, but the wind was real light at the time. -
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Posted: Nov 12, 2008 - 02:16 PM
Actually, your right.
the Pro's:
It's free
It's not usually a busy ramp
no timeline (doesn't close)
The Con's:
No beach (i think the beach was there when the lake was high...but could be wrong)
remote from the good sailing part of the lake
ramp only, no shady spots to catch your breath
I do like Potters Creek Park for camping / sailing (there is no day use anymore). The waterfront inside the park when the water is up is nice and grassy; great for beaching. When the level is down, like now, its rocky. I just like Jacobs Creek because you launch right into the best part of the lake, but the park closes (lock gates) so you are forced to look at your watch when sailing...
anyway...where you from Rvaneman? what do you sail?
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Posted: Nov 14, 2008 - 05:17 PM
Hey Turtlecat, we're from Alvin, near Houston. Our boat is a 6.0na (like your's) named Git-r-Done. We spend a week every summer at Lake Buchanan and we went down to Canyon Lake for a day/night, 2 summers ago.
I hear ya about the lake level. It was way UP when we were there. Buchanan last summer was 8' down and we ran aground in several places.
Thanks for the latest info on Potter's. We oughta get together at one of the regatta's next year!
Rick & Cathy -
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Posted: Nov 14, 2008 - 10:31 PM
Rvaneman,
Alvin, home of Nolan Ryan!...I worked in Houston for many years.
That would be great! We just were at the Wustfest Regatta on Canyon as a chase boat for the mult-hulls (Im not to the level of racing yet - but would love to crew). Sunday was great wind. I grew up on Buchanan, and lived on the lake from 1985-1992. We stay there often, mostly at Black Rock. The last two years the fluctuation has been off the charts. But Buchanan is my favorite. I'm sure I'll retire there someday...
Here is a link to the waterspout that happened this summer.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpCPH---ib
Look forward to meeting ya'll one day.
edited by: turtlecat, Nov 15, 2008 - 08:00 PM -
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Posted: May 21, 2009 - 01:51 PM
Beaver Dam Lake, north central IN, rock(big rock shore line) cement ramp, wind is always coming right up the ramp, thick lillies 10 yards to the right, 10 or so old peer poles 10 or so yards to the left. jump on tack 4 or 5 times real fast flop up st rudder and go like hell. boy that was close is said every time we go there. well not the time we got stuck in the lillies.
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